I had this shoot in mind for quite some time. I wanted to create a queen inspired by Alice in Wonderland movie and Tim Burton's work. However I didn't want to have just the heart represented. I wanted to use every symbol of card game (clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds).
In order to make that possible I started drawing the shapes and trying to see how and where I could make them fit on my model.
The heart was probably the first thing that came to my mind but it's also the one that took me the most time to create (10-15hrs to glue about 450-500 cards).
Then the clubs… I wanted to make something crazy with the hair because I know my hairstylist has got the skills to make anything I have in mind come to life!
Then the spades and diamonds were the last touches using the makeup. The mask with the spades is made of black foundation, lace and beads to give the impression of venetian mask.
Regarding the lighting I used a 3 light setup. A beauty dish in front of my model slightly above her at 45°, then a hair light with red gel to separate the hair form the cards and finally a light on the background. Though the background light turned out to be quite useless as I changed the background in post.
Photographer: Quentin Décaillet
Hair: Dany Maugeri
Makeup: Marlène Bérard
Model: Fiona Giannarelli
Very nice composition. Maybe mirror the image so it can isometrical like the real card. I think it would be nice to see you make the while deck. It will be one big job for you but with this as a sample somebody might be willing to pay to have their whole team in it.
I didn't even think about flipping the picture to make it like a real card. I'm going to try it out and see how it looks! Thanks for the tip Jaydie ;)
Regarding the whole deck idea, I actually have a somewhat similar project in development… it might come out later this year if I can manage to make it come to life like I want it to ;)
Creative!